Oct. 6, 2008

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - For the third time this season, freshman forward Kaitlin Ryan (Wayne, N.J.) has been named the BIG EAST Rookie of the Week, the conference announced today. Ryan is joined in receiving a weekly award by junior Kelly Eagan (St. James, N.Y.), who earned Defensive Player of the Week honors for the third time in her career.

Both players were instrumental for Villanova in a pair of victories last week as the Wildcats defeated St. John's and Syracuse by identical 3-0 scores. The wins stretched the team's winning streak and shutout streak to three games and gave Villanova double figures in the win column for the 10th consecutive season.

Eagan helped to lead a defense that allowed just nine total shots on goal in the two games and posted the squad's fourth and fifth shutouts of the year. The Wildcats defense has not been scored on in the last 291:04 of play and Villanova has won three straight games by a combined 7-0 margin. Overall, the Wildcats have outshot their opponents 35-18 in the last two games and 57-27 during the win streak.

Villanova's defense has been effective in a variety of ways during the recent three-game stretch. Although the Wildcats were outshot 7-3 in a scoreless first half against Syracuse, the defense forced the Orange into taking long-distance shot attempts that didn't come close to finding the back of the net.

The improved play of the defense of late has been complemented by an opportune offense and Ryan is proving to be one of the focal points of the Villanova attack. She scored second-half goals in both games last week, each time making a quick impact on the contest upon entering the game off of the bench. In the win over St. John's, Ryan fired off five shots in the final 14 minutes and scored a late goal. Against Syracuse, she came off the bench late in the first half, remained in the game to start the second half and scored the game's first goal just 1:48 into that second period.

In the two games last week, Ryan played 85 minutes but in that time took 10 shots - including six on goal - and scored a pair of goals. She now leads the team with seven goals and three game-winning goals for the season. Her 17 points (seven goals, three assists) are just one off the team lead. She was previously named Rookie of the Week in consecutive weeks on September 8 and September 15.

In the past three games the Wildcats have been firing on all cylinders and raised their record above .500 (3-2) in BIG EAST Conference play for the first time this year. In addition to its 10 overall wins, Villanova is now guaranteed to finish with at least a .500 record for the 12th straight season.

The Wildcats have earned five weekly awards from the BIG EAST this season and had three players chosen for the weekly honor roll. Villanova is next in action on Friday afternoon at home when it hosts DePaul at 4 p.m. at the West Campus Soccer Complex.